LAVENDER WHITE CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD RECIPE

This traditional shortbread recipe is a wonderful representation of British Baking at its finest! We added delicate lavender with sweet white chocolate for a perfect combination. Shortbread is most commonly associated with Scotland and is a historical confectionary that dates back as far as the 12th century. There are many variations in shortbread recipes, but the fundamentals are butter, sugars, and flour. 

This recipe adds white chocolate chips to the shortbread, but alternatively you can melt the chocolate and dip the shortbreads in to coat half of them once they are cool. You can replace the lavender and white chocolate with other flavors such as glazed cherries, pistachios, milk chocolate chips, or just leave them plain for a traditional flavor. 

Enjoy as part of your Afternoon Tea this summer for a quintessentially British treat!

Granulated Sugar: ¼ cup / 50g and extra for sprinkling

Powdered Sugar: ¼ cup / 50g 

Butter (room-temperature): 1 cup / 100g

Plain Flour: 2 cups / 200g and extra for rolling dough

Vanilla Essence: ¼ teaspoon

Ground lavender buds: 1 tablespoon

Salt: ¼ teaspoon 

White Chocolate Chips: 1 cup

1. Set oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cookie sheet with greaseproof parchment paper.

2. Grind lavender buds into a powder using a mortar and pestle, or alternatively use a rolling pin to crush them as much as possible.

3. Add softened butter, vanilla, both sugars and lavender to a mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix together until pale and fluffy on medium-high setting.

4. Reduce to low, add flour and salt and mix well until fully blended into a dough.

5. Add white chocolate chips to the mix until well dispersed in the dough.

6. Press dough into a ball and place on a well-floured surface. Gently roll out the dough to about an inch thick and cut out the shortbread shapes. Place each shortbread onto the parchment lined cookie sheet.

7. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

8. Transfer shortbreads to the oven and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. You will know they are done when you can easily slide them on the tray. They will still be very soft to touch until they are cooled.

9. Sprinkle shortbreads with sugar. Do not remove them from the tray until completely cool. Enjoy!